Why more people don’t know about Vic Chesnutt I will never know. Everytime somebody sees one of his albums lying about my flat or car or if I have him on the stereo, they ask “who’s Vic Chesnutt”. It’s fair enough, but the man is a genius songwriter and is a bit like Daniel Johnston in the world of music in the sense that he is revered by his fellow musicians. So much so that in 1996 a tribute CD was produced for Sweet Relief (www.sweetrelief.org) with Vic’s songs being covered by artists such as REM, Garbage, Sparklehorse and even Madonna – and her song is actually one of the best on the album in my humble opinion!

Anyways, I think he has about 13 proper studio albums to his name and has had amazing backing bands in the studio such as Lampchop on ‘The Salesman and Bernadette’ and The Silver Mt Zion Orchestra & Tra La La Band on 2007s ‘North Star Deserter’ – his best album in my opinion. We actually owe the success of this man to Michael Stipe of REM who spotted him playing in Athens, Georgia and produced his first 2 albums championing him as a genius. He’s right. He is. I never tire of listening to his tunes and I don’t have 1 album which is the same as the next, which is always refreshing in an artist.

I read this great quote of his whilst writing this post:

“Other people write about the bling and the booty. I write about the pus and the gnats. To me, that’s beautiful”

And it’s true. He does sing about the most bizarre things. But his bizareness, similar to Daniel Johnston is what makes him endlessly endearing and I find myself going back to his music time and time again. If you’ve never heard of him. Go check him out now at: